Gabriel ZamoraResident Evil 7: Biohazard (for PC)Despite the change in perspective, Resident Evil 7 is a triumphant return to form, delivering the tense action and classic B-movie camp that made the series iconic.

Despite the change in perspective, Resident Evil 7 is a triumphant return to form, delivering the tense action and classic B-movie camp that made the series iconic.

My first soiree with Resident Evil was tense and stressful. I played the original when I was ten years old, so the jump-scares, unnerving atmosphere, and grotesque monsters resulted in many nightmare-riddled nights. In retrospect, the pixelated graphics, hilariously bad voice acting, and campy plot are hardly frightening, but at that age the experience struck me with genuine horror. The $59.99 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard evokes the harrowing frights and methodical gameplay of the original game, rather than the series' more action-oriented sequels. The result is a survival-horror game that's both fresh and nostalgic. Resident Evil 7 could use a greater diversity of enemies and weapons, and the lack of additional game modes is disappointing. But on the whole, Resident Evil 7 is a survival-horror game that dials back the action in exchange for white-knuckle thrills, and is all the better for it. Note: The PlayStation 4 version features a VR mode that's exclusive to that platform. We'll test it in coming days.

Evil At Home You play as Ethan Winters, a widowed man whose wife disappeared three years prior to the start of Biohazard's story. A recent and bizarre email from his wife grabs his attention, so Ethan sets out for Dulvey, Louisiana in search of answers. Things quickly go awry, and Ethan must confront the insane Baker family, as well as the monstrosities that haunt their condemned mansion. The story has strong ties to previous Resident Evil games, and this is especially noticeable if you read through the various in-game notes. It is difficult to elaborate further without spoiling anything, but suffice it to say that people who are familiar with the series and its mythos should find plenty of Easter eggs and references. In short, Resident Evil 7 feels right at home with the other games in the series.

Biohazard's first-person action, and its focus on tension rather than monster extermination, sets it apart from other games in the series. Ethan'smovements playa large part in this, as do those of the enemies. Ethan moves well enough to get from point A to point B, but he can't run circles around enemies like, say, the Doomslayer in 2016's Doom. The Baker family and the monsters you encounter keep up with him fairly easily, which means you need to play Resident Evil 7 in much the same way that you would the older Resident Evil games. You must juke around them to avoid taking damage, or kill them before things get out of hand.

In line with this slower paced movement, Ethan can block incoming attacks to mitigate damage. This still results in chip damage, but it is better to block an attack rather than try to avoid it when you're in an area with limited maneuverability. Quick turning, the revolutionary technique introduced in Dino Crisis and Resident Evil 3, returns in Biohazard. Retreating from a monster is important, but risky, given Ethan's relatively unimpressive movement speed. Capcom worked in a quick-turn move that lets Ethan immediately spin around, which makes retreating faster and easier. The movement, defense, and quick turning emulate the older games' tank-like controls without feeling obtuse or clunky.

Monster Hunting Jack, Marguerite, and Lucas Baker are Biohazard's primary antagonists. They are hands-on brutes that attack you on sight. Worse, they're also impossible to kill: they revive themselves after a certain amount of time, or when you perform trigger actions within their zone, like finding a key item or solving a puzzle. You are better off staying out of their line of sight and hiding to avoid confrontation, since fighting them is a waste of ammunition in most cases. Ammo is best reserved for the monsters that coexist within the property; slimy, humanoid creatures called the Molded.

When you face off against Molded, you'll need to whip out a gun and set the monsters straight. You come across several weapons as you explore the Baker property, from a basic pistol, to grenade gun, and plenty of gun types and variants in between. Many of these you discover behind locked doors or by solving puzzles. The shotgun, for example, can be pulled off a statue, but only if you replace it with a broken replica—a classic Resident Evil trope.

All guns have their uses, but some are more practical than others. The shotgun is the go-to weapon in most scenarios: a single blast can flip a monster through the air, or outright kill it in a spray of gooey gore. The magnum boasts tremendous power, but ammo for it is scarce, so you don't want to waste the shots on fodder. Likewise, grenades rounds are potent, but are best saved for boss encounters. The submachine gun and flame launcher are weak, last resort weapons.

Resident Evil 7 has a limb-dismembering system similar in spirit to Resident Evil 4's limb shooting technique, though I feel that the latter pulled off the mechanic better. In Resident Evil 4, you can pop an enemy in the knee to set up a melee attack, or slow it down as the situation demands. In Biohazard, enemies shrug off shots to their extremities until you deal enough damage to blow the limb off. Blasting a monster's legs off in a shower of tar-like slime is a spectacular sight, but doing so isn't particularly viable. It usually takes more ammo than it's worth to cripple an enemy, and these shots are better suited towards shooting the head to dispatch targets more efficiently. On Madhouse difficulty, enemies have more health, are more aggressive, and appear in greater numbers, which makes this strategy even less useful.

Not including boss monsters, Resident Evil 7 has a disappointingly small enemy roster. Most of the monster encounters come courtesy of the Molded who stalk the grounds. The most basic and common type is a tall, slimy, black creature with massive teeth and claws, and a vaguely human visage. These creatures are slow moving, but they can rush you with claw swipes or take a bite out of you. Crawling, four-legged Molded hit hard and move fast, but they have low health. Massive, bloated Molded enemies are bruisers that take and dish out a lot of damage, but they are relatively uncommon compared to the other two. Biohazard varies the gameplay enough so that you never fight Molded for too long, Still. the Molded encounters grew stale by the time I made it to the game's final act.

There are a limited number of enemies in each area. Acquiring a key item or solving a puzzle can potentially spawn a new enemy or two, but generally there's a cap to how many Molded appear in a zone. To spice things up, enemies you don't kill when you first encounter them can disappear and respawn elsewhere in the level, making combat unpredictable. The randomness of enemy spawning is a nice way to vary up the combat in lieu of greater enemy variety, but at the same time I found the randomization frustrating, because it is much harder to plan a route through an area when you can't be sure where enemies are.

A Slow Burn Resident Evil 7 is fantastically paced. You go from avoiding a Baker, to exploring a new area, to fighting Molded enemies, to solving a puzzle, and back to evading enemies, so you are almost never fighting for too long, or running away from something to the point that it gets frustrating. You also find several VHS tapes that let you play through the scenario of other characters, much like in the game's own demo. In one tape, for example, you play as someone attempting to escape the Baker's derelict bayou side house without getting caught. Playing through this tape section gives you a nice preview of the area before you get to it, and it serves as a respite from whatever you may have been doing as Ethan.

That said, Biohazard lacks the series' goofy optional modes, which is a bit disappointing if you had your heart set on content outside of the campaign. Aside from achievement hunting or playing on the higher difficulty, Resident Evil 7 is a straightforward campaign focused game with no online features. There are additional modes in the form of DLC in the works, but those won't be made available for a few weeks.

The visuals look great when run on the Ultra settings, though the textures look a little muddy if you closely scrutinize objects or walls. There's also noticeable texture pop-in when you quickly move around an area. Still, the game makes excellent use of shadows and volumetric lighting to create its revoltingly gritty environments, so you'll definitely want to play on high or ultra settings if your rig allows it. My Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 GPU pushed polygons at a 60 frames-per-second rate.

On Steam, the game offers Steam Trading Cards, as well as Steam Achievements for die-hard collectors. Steam Cloud Saves and game controllers are fully supported, too. If you buy Resident Evil 7 from the Windows 10 Store, you can take advatage of Microsoft's PlayAnywhere initiative.

Surviving the Horror By slowing down the action and changing the perspective, Capcom has created a Resident Evil game that captures the dread that I loved in the original game. The excellent pacing, thoughtful action, and amazing atmosphere result in a game that horror fans should unquestionably play. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a great game and lays an excellent foundation that I hope Capcom builds upon for future series entries. It's PCMag's new Editors' Choice for survival horror games.

Gabriel Zamora is as passionate about writing as he is about video games and electronics, and his fervor has led to game and tech article contributions in a variety of online publications including PCMag.com, Examiner.com, 2D-X.com, and Multiplayergames.com. When not criticizing the state of gaming or reviewing tech, Gabriel spends much of his time attending related events in New York City, catching up on his favorite written works, or trying out new cooking recipes at home. You can follow him on Twitter: @Dracozombie....
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